Gov. Corbett Asks Judge to Throw Out or Delay NCAA Lawsuit

Gov. Corbett is attempting to squash the NCAA’s lawsuit that seeks to overturn the law he signed requiring Penn State’s $60 million fine be kept completely in-state. 

Corbett wants the lawsuit thrown out, but presented federal judge Yvette Kane with the alternate scenario of putting it on hold. 

In court documents filed Thursday in the U.S. Middle District Court, Corbett argued for the delay asking that Kane first make a determination on his antitrust lawsuit filed against the NCAA. Corbett sued the NCAA in January in an effort to reverse the sanctions Penn State and the NCAA came to terms over via a Consent Agreement signed by Penn State President Rodney Erickson in July. 

What NCAA President Mark Emmert called “unprecedented sanctions” were handed down to Penn State in the wake of the Jerry Sandusky child sexual abuse scandal.

Corbett also presented Sen. Jake Corman’s lawsuit against the NCAA as evidence to put the NCAA’s lawsuit on hold. Corman sued the NCAA in an effort to keep Pen State’s $60 million fine in Pa. in its entirety. 

In December, Penn State paid the first of five $12 million installments into an escrow fund. The fine money will not be distributed until all pending litigation is settled, as agreed upon by Pa. legislators and the NCAA. 

Corbett argued allowing the NCAA’s lawsuit to proceed would interfere with his antitrust lawsuit and Corman’s lawsuit, both of which were filed before the NCAA sued Gov. Corbett and that state of Pennsylvania. 

The NCAA has filed objections to Corman’s complaint and recently asked a judge to dismiss Corbett’s lawsuit.